Record overtime for idle legislature

Tuesday

Jul 24, 2007 at 12:01 AMJul 24, 2007 at 8:06 AM

Tuesday looked like most days around the Illinois Capitol lately. The House and Senate met briefly and did nothing. Lawmakers griped about being in Springfield with nothing to do. The budget impasse was not resolved. But lawmakers hit a significant milestone Tuesday, setting a record for futility by being in session longer than any year since the state adopted a new constitution in 1970.

Doug Finke

Tuesday looked like most days around the Illinois Capitol lately.

The House and Senate met briefly and did nothing. Lawmakers griped about being in Springfield with nothing to do. The budget impasse was not resolved.

But lawmakers hit a significant milestone Tuesday, setting a record for futility by being in session longer than any year since the state adopted a new constitution in 1970.

“Holding the record for the longest overtime session in Illinois history is not one we should be proud of,” said Sen. Martin Sandoval, D-Chicago.

“I don’t feel proud to be part of the process,” said Sen. Dale Risinger, R-Peoria. “I think people ought to be outraged. It’s ridiculous we don’t have a budget.”

Nor does the state have a construction bond program, nor a plan to increase education spending, nor has it dealt with Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s top priority of providing greater access to health-care coverage to the uninsured.

Against all of that is the ongoing talk of a government shutdown when the current temporary budget expires July 31.

“I believe we will continue to set new records every day until way past July 31,” Sandoval said. “I predict we will be very close to a government shutdown at the rate we are going.”

“We talk to agency directors who say they’ve been instructed to put together contingency plans in the event of a shutdown,” Comptroller Dan Hynes said Tuesday in a telephone interview. “There is no reason we should have to go through this exercise. There is no reason to create this climate of fear and anxiety.”

Hynes said lawmakers should approve another one-month budget if they cannot agree on a permanent spending plan.

“It is my belief that the mere discussion or contemplation of a shutdown is both unnecessary and irresponsible,” he said. “The ones who will get slapped are innocent state employees and people who rely on state services. They should not pay the price for our inability to come to an agreement.”

Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said she had no knowledge of agencies issuing directives about what will happen in the event of a shutdown in August.

“From the perspective of our office, we are doing everything we can to avoid a shutdown,” she said.

Although Blagojevich was in Springfield Tuesday, he did not meet with the four legislative leaders to discuss a budget. The five men have not gotten together since Friday.

On Monday, Blagojevich was in Chicago signing a bill to ban indoor smoking statewide, while Senate President Emil Jones, D-Chicago, and House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, were flying around the state promoting an electric rate relief plan that the legislature still has to approve.

“It’s not something if I were those guys I’d be proud of and go around the state bragging about, spending taxpayers’ money with that plane hauling everybody around when they should be in a room working on the budget,” Risinger said.

Rausch said the governor was meeting Tuesday with senators “about the health plan, among other things.”

Blagojevich is working with senators to craft a scaled-down version of his initial plan to offer access to health insurance for every Illinoisan. The new plan would be funded with a 3 percent payroll tax on employers who offer no or very limited health insurance coverage to their employees. Some lawmakers also said there are discussions of raising the state tax on cigarettes as a way of paying for the program.

Blagojevich is insisting that some version of his health plan must be part of a final budget deal. He’s willing to delay the start of the plan until next summer, which would allow it to pass with just Democratic votes.

But even that might not be enough. Rep. Frank Mautino, D-Spring Valley, a key House negotiator on health-care issues, said support in the House will hinge on just how scaled down the new plan is.

“If it is a phased-in program that still carries an (eventual) $3 billion price tag, it doesn’t pass,” Mautino said.

Lawmakers set the previous record for overtime futility in 2004 when they didn’t approve a budget until July 24. Officially, the session ended that year at 7:59 p.m.

Many observers credited the impending Democratic National Convention with finally forcing a budget compromise. Many Democrats in the General Assembly wanted to attend the event.

There’s nothing similar on the schedule this year, which has led people to think that only a government shutdown will produce a final budget solution.

“We are in suspended animation,” said House Minority Leader Tom Cross, R-Oswego. “The only way we’re going to get something done is to find ourselves in a crisis situation. There’s no pressure to get anything done.”

Not everyone is pessimistic, though.

Jones’ top deputy, Sen. Debbie Halvorson, D-Crete, said she believes everyone is scaling back their demands, a first step toward reaching a compromise. She also said the overtime is not necessarily a bad thing.

“I think this is a message we are sending that we care about the people we represent,” Halvorson said. “People are standing ground on their special issues and things they care about because the people sent them here to stand up for them.”

Doug Finke can be reached at (217) 788-1527 or doug.finke@sj-r.com.

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